The connection of a trailer to a motor vehicle brings with it a requirement for additional rear lights. In particular, where the rear lights of the vehicle are obscured, additional lights, commonly referred to as trailer lights, are necessary to provide rear lighting.
A similar requirement can arise when a structure, such as a rack, is mounted to the rear of a motor vehicle. Where the rack obscures rear lights of the vehicle, additional lights, commonly in the form of a light bar, must be provided on the rack.
Additional lights may also be employed at the front of a vehicle. Such additional front lights may, for example, be spot lamps or the like.
Additional lights may be used jointly with vehicle lights or may act as replacements or substitutes for vehicle lights (for example where the vehicle lights are obscured). It can therefore be important that there is a match or correspondence between the vehicle lights and the additional lights. This tends to be particularly crucial in the context of additional rear lights, for example for brake lights or indicators.
Power is generally supplied to additional lights by an electric power supply of the motor vehicle. Accordingly, additional lights are electrically connected to the vehicle. Connection may be achieved in a variety of ways to suit the particular nature of the additional lights and vehicle. Many additional lights, especially additional rear lights, such as trailer lights or a light bar, are temporarily mounted and are therefore connected to the vehicle by an electrical connector that can be readily disconnected, for example a trailer socket.
Given the often temporary nature of additional light connection, and the wide variety of wiring systems that may be employed in additional lights, it is important to inspect additional lights before use to ensure that they match the vehicle lights. This is particularly vital in the context of trailer lights, where wiring may be complex and lights may have failed since the last use of the trailer.
Inspection of additional lights presents the problem that additional lights are often not visible from a vehicle driver's seat from which they are activated in normal use. Brake lights, for example, are lit only while the brake pedal is depressed, which requires a presence in the driver seat. Two people may therefore be required to inspect the lights.
It is known in the art to provide portable light testers for additional lights, in particular trailer lights. Such testers typically comprise a connector for connection to the additional lights, and supply power to selected additional lights on depression of associated buttons to simulate power supplied by a motor vehicle in use. However, such testers are cumbersome and may be ineffective if the additional lights are incorrectly connected to the vehicle after testing.
It is also known in the art to provide circuit testers, which may be mounted between the vehicle and the additional lights. However, while such testers may detect earth faults and the like, they may not detect non-matching additional lights, caused for example by crossed wiring. Such crossed wiring could however have serious effects, for example in the context of indicators.
It is an aim of embodiments of the invention to facilitate convenient and effective inspection of additional lights and/or to address at least one problem associated with the prior art.